Zenith
by gryffindormischief
Summary: After nearly a year, things culminate for Harry and Ginny.
A/N: I don't own anything. Bonus points if anyone guesses what store they are leaving at the beginning. Also "zenith" was the word of the day yesterday :)

* * *

The cash register drawer filled with Muggle money slid shut as Harry pocketed his receipt, picked up the two hot chocolates and turned to find his companion concealed by the holiday rush. _Lucky she took off her hat,_ he thought as he spotted her fiery head over the crowd and moved toward his fiancé.

"One 'guaranteed taste of heaven' for Ginevra Weasley," Harry intoned as he passed the paper cup over to Ginny's newly mittened hand.

"I'll take anything to defrost my exposed orifices," Ginny grumbled good-naturedly.

"Orifices?"

"Hermione gave me that stupid calendar last year, the one with a new word every day?"

"And threatened to give Rita Skeeter your personal datebook if you didn't incorporate them into everyday life?"

"Oi! One of us should sound intellectual, and since hanging around Ron and a bunch of _Aurors_ all day means the best new addition to your vocabulary is 'bloody hell,'" Ginny drawled as they moved toward the escalators.

Hesitating at the top of the moving stairs, Harry paused before finally boarding what he had mentally termed a 'death trap' during his many forays into the Muggle department store. Ginny rolled her eyes as they descended, opening her mouth to continue her jabs when Harry's retort came, "First, he's _your_ brother so you've been around him longer, and second, you're a bloody Holyhead Harpy, and Quidditch locker rooms are hardly known as halls of language refinement."

"You better not let Gwenog hear you denigrating her team like that."

Harry snorted, "Any particular reason you started this new campaign nearly a year after Hermione gave you the present?"

Ginny mumbled something into her mug as she pushed the revolving door that led to the street, separating herself from Harry's interrogation. She turned around to look at him through the glass, miming that she couldn't hear a word he was saying, while Harry entered the next section of the door, shaking his head.

Once both had exited and escaped the initial flow of foot traffic, Harry opened his mouth to renew his inquiry, which Ginny cut off quickly by raising her face skyward and sniffing dramatically.

"What the hell are you doing?"

"Don't say 'hell' at Christmastime," Ginny said loftily. Harry responded with a snort.

" _Anyway_ , if someone had politely asked what I was doing, I would have told them I was trying to tell if it was going to snow – "

"I don't think that's a real thing – " Harry interrupted.

Ginny plowed on, seemingly ignorant of her fiancé's interjection, " – But since you were so rude and disrespectful to the spirit of the season, I won't tell you what my olfactory senses revealed."

"Olfactory?"

"Do you need a definition dear?"

"Nah, context clues…they teach it in Auror training."

A companionable silence descended as the two moved through the busy streets, each with one hand gripping a rapidly cooling 'hot' chocolate, the others clasped together between them.

"In the spirit of the holidays, since it's all about good-will and friendship, I can reveal to you my prediction about the weather."

"Do I still get a Christmas present?"

"Not with the way you've been behaving. You're lucky I'm letting you hold my hand," Ginny answered saucily.

"I'm sorry. Please oh great one – should I call you Zeus?"

"Why would you…never mind, I don't want to know."

"He's the god of storms I think?"

"I remember something about lightning."

Harry released Ginny's hand and moved to toss his empty cup into a bin and turned back around, only to narrowly miss being beamed in the head with Ginny's. She smirked and continued their earlier thread of conversation, "It smells like snow, that is my pronouncement."

"I still say that's not – "

"I have a highly developed sense of smell," Ginny stated imperiously.

As they moved further down the festively decorated street, Ginny slipped her hand into the crook of Harry's arm and leaned her head against his wool-covered shoulder, blinking lazily.

"Are you – bloody hell, would you look at that?"

Ginny lifted her head and glanced up to see a light dusting of flurries descending from the dark sky.

"Good thing you didn't promise to eat your hat if I was right."

Harry chuckled, "Why is that a thing people say?"

"I have no idea, other than the obvious – no one wants to eat their hat."

"We probably shouldn't stay out too late, I don't want you to get sick and your face is already all red."

Groaning, Ginny took her mittened hands and rubbed her cheeks, "I will forever resent you for looking so adorable when cold, while I look like a Pygmy Puff."

"Everyone loves Pygmy Puffs."

"They wouldn't if they looked like one – hey! you were supposed to argue and say I look adorable too."

"That was the next step – "

"The first step should have been 'No darling _of course_ you don't look like a Pygmy Puff.'"

Harry laughed, slipping his gloves into one of his pockets before blowing into his hands and resting them on Ginny's face to look deeply into her eyes, "No one can blame you for feeling inferior next to me, who has eyes as green as a fresh pickled – "

"Don't start that again."

" – toad, hair as dark as a – "

"Did you forget what happened to you on Valentine's Day?"

" – blackboard – "

"That was never proven to be me."

"I never said it was, I was merely showing you that others have recognized my animal magnetism and been in awe, just as you are."

"I may sick up, you hellion," Ginny rejoined, before grabbing Harry's bare hand and sliding it into his pocket, together with her own.

"Which brings us back to the million galleon question – why the sudden enthusiasm for a gift you were given nearly 365 days ago?" Harry again asked as they neared their designated apparition point.

Ginny hemmed and hawed for a moment before she blurted, "Ijustopenedityesterday."

"Oho! And the other shoe drops! So _ungrateful_! I get it…you're afraid Hermione is going to bring it up and – "

"Are you telling me _you_ have been keeping track of the calendar she gave you about the history of wizard/goblin relat – "

"We have to go home now."


End file.
